The Effect of Emotional Disclosure Interventions on Psychological and Physical Well-Being of Breast Cancer Patients
Abstract
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women in the United States and thus it is important to study the psychosocial impact of treating this disease and potential ways to improve women's quality of life during treatment. A large body of literature supports the health benefits associated with both written and oral disclosure of emotional traumas in healthy populations. However, no published studies have investigated the effects of writing about emotional topics in breast cancer patients. The proposed research is a controlled, randomized trial to test the effectiveness of two types of emotional disclosure interventions. One hundred fifty early stage, breast cancer patients will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: cancer-specific disclosure, non-cancer related disclosure, or a control. During the intervention, participants will write on three occasions about either their deepest thoughts and feelings about their cancer diagnosis and treatment, their deepest thoughts and feelings about a non-cancer related traumatic event, or a superficial topic. Measures of physical and emotional well- being will be collected via telephone at baseline, one month, and six months following the intervention. Medical charts will be reviewed to collect information about date of diagnosis, stage of cancer, type of surgery, type of treatment, and duration of treatment. The results from this study have important implications for psychosocial care of breast cancer patients and may inform future interventions for improving women's health.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA384219
Entities
People
- Elizabeth Fries
- Melissa Figueiredo
Organizations
- Virginia Commonwealth University